Posts by Category: Eco Friendly

Warming temperatures are being felt in many areas around the world as drought conditions continue. The answer to how to keep buildings cool while keeping energy costs down may lie in utilizing older technology in a new, innovative way. California-based design studio Emerging Objects has developed 3D-printed porous bricks called Cool Bricks that can be filled with water to lower room temperatures. Utilizing evaporative cooling, an old technology where dry warm air is cool through the use of water evaporation…

For many, getting exercise involves going to a gym, especially when the weather turns cold and nasty. Sometimes it’s important to take a break from technology and clear your head. Now some folks in Louisville, Kentucky have come up with the perfect venue for that.

Tomorrow, Saturday 28th March 2015, at 8.30pm local time wherever you are, the lights will be switched off all over the world for a symbolic 60 minutes, to mark Earth Hour. Described as a ‘worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet‘, and organized by the World Wildlife Fund, it basically gives everyone a chance to demonstrate their concern for the state of our planet in whatever small way they can.

The world is full of trash so every little bit that you can keep from going into a landfill helps the Earth out just a bit. Plus reusing things that people consider waste as decoration makes your house look chic. The SUCK UK Cork Shaped Rechargeable Bottle Light turns your empty bottles into bright lamps.

3D printing is super cool. You can do so much with it. What if you could make the world a cleaner place with every piece of jewelry or tiny figure you make? That’s the goal of the EKOCycle, the 3D printer that that uses recycled plastic to make your creations.

Everyone’s living spaces are vastly improved by additions of living things. Not everyone is compatible with pets (which is a shame) but most people do ok with plants. Plants that do more than just sit there are even better. The Torch Plant Light Botanical Candle is both a plant and a soft mood light.

An enterprising Italian company has come up with a product that could transform the way we live, by opening up dark gloomy spaces in an amazing way. The trick lies in making artificial sunlight seem incredibly real using some very clever technology and materials. Suddenly your dreary basement den can be as beautifully welcoming as a rooftop dormer loft conversion, and all year round too.

Many more people are nowadays trying to grow their own food in whatever way they can, spurred on by a growing distrust in the quality of the mass produced food available in most shops. However it can be hard work, especially if you live in a city, as anyone who’s ever tried growing any edibles on their balcony will tell you. Now a new system designed in Portugal may provide an easier solution.

The LifeStraw is a brilliant invention, designed to let you safely purify contaminated water completely, so you could happily drink from rivers or other suspect water sources on your foreign travels. It also comes with a nicely humanitarian feature, in that every purchase funds a year’s clean drinking water in Africa for a child. Now the company is branching out, or rather in, to our kitchens.

Everyone knows that 3D printing is still at an extremely early stage of development, just baby steps really. But it’s clear that eventually the process of printing things on demand will change the world beyond all recognition. It will make the mobile phone revolution look like nothing. Think we’re joking?

We take it for granted, but water is not universally available to all. Even where there are loads of running water taps, there are situations where it may not be possible or feasible to use a lot of it in doing something like taking a bath. Which is where this clever product comes into play.

Fact: If something is presented as a game, no matter how boring it is, people will be way more likely to do it. Laundry? Nope! A sorting game? Yeah, I can do that. TetraBIN is a trash bin that turns not littering into a very real game you and your friends can play. That game is Tetris.

Don’t look now, but airships are about to make a comeback. Big time. The idea of using lighter than air craft kind of went away with the flaming disasters of the 1930s, but now a new generation of technologies offers safer, more efficient options for these giants, And now one British company thinks it has come up with the perfect product to attract buyers to the market once more.

Aquaponic farms are awesome. The balance between fish and plant is really neat and it’s a great self-sustaining method of farming. Not everyone has space for all that but there’s a small version that you can stash on your desk. The Back to Roots AquaFarm allows you to grow herbs using aquaponics.

It’s a sad fact that too much of the world still has to live without electricity for basic needs, which is incredible in an age when we’re sending probes to Mars, but what do you do? Well one enterprising eco-activist has set up a small company to manufacture home lamps called SALt which run off salt and water, or just plain old sea water.